Armed Forces: The Long Way Home

Out from a month behind the U.S. Air
Force secrecy curtain came the two RB-47 airmen who were released by
the Russians shortly after John Kennedy's inauguration. In a prepared
joint statement, followed by a question-and-answer session at Forbes
Air Force Base, near Topeka,Kans., Captains Freeman B. Olmstead and John
McKone (TIME cover, Feb. 3) told newsmen what happened to them after
their RB-47 was shot down over the Barents Sea last July while flying a
"ferret" mission to test Russian radar defenses. Their story of
personal bravery under intense cold war pressures left unanswered the
question of why the...